Minisink residents file petition

December 26, 2012 —

TOWN OF MINISINK, NY — On December 19, Carolyn Elefant, the lawyer representing Minisink residents, filed a joint petition for review with the DC Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. The community intends to challenge the orders made by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) earlier this month to deny residents’ rehearing request, and to approve Millennium Pipeline’s compressor station proposal as the final order on Minisink’s docket. The commission ruled in an unprecedented 3-2 split.

After a struggle that’s lasted nearly a year and a half, this
effectively allows Minisink residents to forge ahead to pursue the case at the federal level. In its petition, the Minisink community asks the court to vacate FERC’s orders on the grounds that they “are arbitrary and capricious and unsupported by material evidence.”

The Minisink community is concerned about the possibility of a major pipeline disaster occurring similar to the explosion in San Bruno, CA in 2010, which left eight dead and dozens of homes and properties destroyed.